Mr. Ken Spratt:

I can give Deputy Sherlock that assurance in a word, "Yes". If he does not mind, I will expand a little on that. I accept that our procurement processes were in need of tightening. There is no doubt about that. As I mentioned in the appropriation account, the Department carried out a procurement gap analysis in 2019. We identified several recommendations for enhancements around procurement. That report included a comprehensive suite of recommendations covering the appointment and functions of a procurement officer, in addition to corporate governance matters, measuring and monitoring compliance, communications, training requirements and corporate governance of agencies as regards procurement. Deputy Sherlock will be delighted to hear that we appointed a procurement officer in 2020, as was recommended. Enhanced corporate governance, and improved measuring and monitoring of compliance and training, are being implemented.

As a relatively new Secretary General, this is something I am very focused on. I expect that we will learn some lessons from much of our seeking out, and the 100% review, where we now look at every procurement. I expect we will find some things when we do that review but, once we are through all of that, we will be a lot more fit for purpose and a lot cleaner than we are at the moment. A lot of very good work has been done over the past 18 months to two years. There is more work to be done, but we are making very good improvements in that area.

On national secondary routes, the state of the N73 and the need for it to be improved, we have processes around prioritisation for new roads and for protection and renewal, which includes safety works and minor projects. For new roads, the prioritisation processes include TII and NTA recommendations. We also look at Government objectives under the national planning framework and the national development plan, current Department priorities, levels of congestion, the possibility of releasing space in towns for active travel, projects that improve access to public transport facilities and the general rationale set out in our national investment framework for transport in Ireland, NIFTI, which is our transport investment strategy. That has a number of priorities, including a mobile hierarchy and investment hierarchy.

I know the Deputy is specifically interested in protection and renewal. For protection and renewal, and any minor projects, we monitor those problems the Deputy and others have highlighted at our quarterly monitoring meeting with TII. If there are serious issues that need to be addressed, we try to raise them at that meeting. At the periodic meeting of the TII board - it may be quarterly or more often than that - it is decided what funding will be provided. The Deputy mentioned the N73. We will look at it, as he asked, and we will see where it fits in the greater scheme of things.

On the Leap card, we are very keen to encourage modal shift with our decarbonisation agenda. That is not just in the cities, but in regional and rural areas. Due to our ambition regarding decarbonisation, we have a big job of work to do in shifting people out of cars and onto public transport. We have plans to increase our current public service obligation funding for regional and rural bus services. It is something we will be very focused on over the next couple of years. I accept the point the Deputy made regarding the Leap card. It is something we have to sort out. We have to make it easier for people to use public transport services, not only by making the services available but by having them available when people want them, having more services and also having ease-of-use of those services. The greater and wider use of Leap cards throughout the country is something I am very mindful of.